MOTU Ships Digital Performer 8

MOTU is now shipping Digital Performer Version 8, a major upgrade to the company's flagship audio workstation software supporting Windows 7 and Mac OS X. Digital Performer 8 is now shipping for Mac OS X; the Windows version is in final testing and MOTU says it will be available soon to all registered DP8 users.

New features include 64-bit operation, a new video playback engine, Punch Guard confidence recording, 17 new included plug-ins, 15 new user interface themes, new plug-in management features, and VST/Rewire support.

DP8's new video engine allows full-screen viewing of full 720 or 1,080 HD video clips on a primary or secondary computer monitor, or on a conventional HDMI or SDI video monitor connected to a MOTU video interface such as the HD Express or HDX-SDI. The movie window can be easily popped in and out of the consolidated window, and the movie audio track can be routed to aux faders for mixing and processing, without the need to extract the audio.

Digital Performer's Themes allow users to change the entire look of the software with one click. DP8 adds 15 new themes, including "Hi-Fi", "Arctic", and "None More Black".

The full version is $795. A competitive upgrade is offered for $395, while an AudioDesk upgrade is $395 and upgrading from a previous version is $195.